The Blue Line (French: Ligne bleue) is one of the four lines of the Montreal Metro in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the fourth to be built, notwithstanding its alternate official name of "Line 5" (Line 3 was planned, but never built). Unlike the other three routes, the Blue Line does not serve the city's main Metro station, Berri-UQAM.

The line is served by a single yard located between Parc and de Castelnau stations which is completely underground and occupies a small portion underneath Jarry Park. Another service facility is located at the 500-metre end tracks following Snowdon station, but is rarely used by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

Contents

Construction of Snowdon station began in 1975, with two platform levels. In 1979, the provincial government decided to build the Blue Line. On 16 June 1986 the first section, between Saint-Michel to De Castelnau opened.

This was followed by the section from De Castelnau to Parc on 15 June 1987 and Parc to Snowdon on 4 January 1988. The opening of the intermediate station Acadie was delayed for almost three months. It was finally opened on 28 March 1988. Other planned extensions at both ends of the route have so far been omitted due to financial reasons.

The former Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT, now ARTM) published a study, Vision 2020, in December 2011. According to this, the Blue Line will be extended northeast of Saint-Michel to Anjou. There were a total of five planned new stations: Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire, Langelier and Anjou.[1] The terminus would be located at the Galeries d'Anjou shopping centre, near the junction of Autoroute 25 and Autoroute 40. On 20 September 2013, a 7-km extension northeast to St. Leonard and Anjou was announced by the STM and the Quebec government.[2] The provincial government announced that the extension would proceed and committed $38.8 million to set up a "Project Office" tasked with preparing detailed financial and technical plans within two years. The construction start was due for 2021 with a completion date in 2025.[3] On 28 May 2014, it was announced that the project would be reviewed after a new provincial government took over, and that if accepted again, construction would start in 2021, which was confirmed by the STM's new 2025 Plan.[3]

While the proposed Metro Blue Line extension to St. Leonard and Anjou announced in September 2013 was not pursued following the defeat of the then-Parti Québécois government in 2014, on 9 April 2018 it was announced that a final commitment to the project had been made by both the provincial and federal governments to fund and complete the extension; the work is slated to begin in 2020.[5]

The trains are composed of the MR-73 where they originally circulated in the orange line and the blue line is transferred, except trains of 3 elements of 9 cars that have built the short ones stations and other long ones, the MR-73 trains are used with 2 elements of 6 cars.